1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a content processing apparatus and a content processing method for processing content to be distributed or delivered via various distributing/delivering means, and also to a storage medium implementing such a method. More particularly, the invention pertains to a content processing apparatus and a content processing method for processing value-added information for the content, and also to a storage medium implementing such a method. More specifically, the invention relates to a content processing apparatus and a content processing method for processing content digest information obtained from favorite information of a content user or instruction information for playing back the content, and also to a storage medium implementing such a method. More particularly, the invention relates to a content processing apparatus and a content processing method for processing the content according to the content digest information, and also to a storage medium implementing such a method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of content, such as movies, dramas, sport programs, music, etc., are now distributed or delivered to many unspecified viewers/listeners (users) via various distributing/delivering means, such as distributing via broadcast or communication, and delivering via media, for example, digital versatile discs (DVDs) on which the content is stored.
In this type of content distributing/delivering technique, the content is simply distributed/delivered from a content provider, and the user favorite information is not added to the content. For example, when playing back the content with a playback apparatus, the user may find a popular title, an interesting scene, and an uninteresting scene in the content. The user expresses his/her favorite in response to such various scenes by performing an operation on the playback apparatus, for example, changing channels, fast-forwarding the content, or rewinding the content.
The favorite data obtained by the above-described user operation is very useful in selecting the content from an enormous number of items of content, and has predetermined added value. The user favorite data can also be used for classifying and digesting the content, such as selecting a specific title or a specific scene from the title and storing it (or recording an index of the selected scenes).
At present, however, a system for feeding back such an added value obtained from the user favorite information to the user, or a system for utilizing the added value for viewing/listening to the content is not provided.